Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There's no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson. But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in digestible chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

The Art of Invisibility: The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data

Like it or not, your every move is being watched and analyzed. Consumers' identities are being stolen, and a person's every step is being tracked and stored. What once might have been dismissed as paranoia is now a hard truth, and privacy is a luxury few can afford or understand. In this explosive yet practical book, Kevin Mitnick illustrates what is happening without your knowledge - and he teaches you "the art of invisibility".

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

Beware! The sordid lives of plants behaving badly. A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. Amy Stewart, best-selling author of Flower Confidential, takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations in an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.

Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain - for Life

Debilitating brain disorders are on the rise - from children diagnosed with autism and ADHD to adults developing dementia at younger ages than ever before. But a medical revolution is underway that can solve this problem: Astonishing new research is revealing that the health of your brain is, to an extraordinary degree, dictated by the state of your microbiome - the vast population of organisms that live in your body and outnumber your own cells 10 to one.

Brain Myths Exploded: Lessons from Neuroscience

Much of the layperson's knowledge of the brain is predicated on a lack of understanding about this mysterious organ. To start building a more straightforward, accurate understanding of current breakthroughs in neuroscience, you have to start by shattering popular brain myths.

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands to rethink their beliefs about life.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

In this must-listen book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, students, and businesspeople - both seasoned and new - that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called "grit". Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur "genius" Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success.

Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

How will artificial intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society, and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology - and there's nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who's helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial.

Jason S says:"Deep dive into what a world with superhuman AI may look like"

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say yes - and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His 35 years of rigorous, evidence-based research, along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior, has resulted in this highly acclaimed book. You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader - and how to defend yourself against them.

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ

Our gut is almost as important to us as our brain, yet we know very little about how it works. Gut: The Inside Story is an entertaining, informative tour of the digestive system from the moment we raise a tasty morsel to our lips until the moment our body surrenders the remnants to the toilet bowl. No topic is too lowly for the author's wonder and admiration, from the careful choreography of breaking wind to the precise internal communication required for a cleansing vomit.

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically acclaimed New York Times best seller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity's future and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Why do we do the things we do? More than a decade in the making, this game-changing book is Robert Sapolsky's genre-shattering attempt to answer that question as fully as perhaps only he could, looking at it from every angle. Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful, but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: He starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs and then hops back in time from there in stages, ultimately ending up at the deep history of our species and its evolutionary legacy.

Thinking, Fast and Slow

The guru to the gurus at last shares his knowledge with the rest of us. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman at last offers his own, first book for the general public. It is a lucid and enlightening summary of his life's work. It will change the way you think about thinking. Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains....

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: and Other Clinical Tales

Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.

The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People's Lives Better, Too)

Best-selling author Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project; Better Than Before) reveals the surprising truth about the four hidden personality types that drive everything we do. Learn how to understand yourself better - and also how to influence others more effectively.

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

Emotions feel automatic to us; that's why scientists have long assumed that emotions are hardwired in the body or the brain. Today, however, the science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural selection in biology. This paradigm shift has far-reaching implications not only for psychology but also medicine, the legal system, airport security, child-rearing, and even meditation.

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements

Reporter Sam Kean reveals the periodic table as it’s never been seen before. Not only is it one of man's crowning scientific achievements, it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.

The Greatest Story Ever Told - So Far: Why Are We Here?

Internationally renowned, award-winning theoretical physicist, New York Times bestselling author of A Universe from Nothing, and passionate advocate for reason, Lawrence Krauss tells the dramatic story of the discovery of the hidden world of reality - a grand poetic vision of nature - and how we find our place within it.

The End of Alzheimer's: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline

In this paradigm shifting book, Dale Bredesen, MD, offers real hope to anyone looking to prevent and even reverse Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline. Revealing that AD is not one condition, as it is currently treated, but three, The End of Alzheimer's outlines 36 metabolic factors (micronutrients, hormone levels, sleep) that can trigger "downsizing" in the brain. The protocol shows us how to rebalance these factors using lifestyle modifications like taking B12, eliminating gluten, or improving oral hygiene.

Robert Trader says:"fascinating book, enjoy the audio version."

New Insights

In this paradigm shifting book, Dale Bredesen, MD, offers real hope to anyone looking to prevent and even reverse Alzheimer's Disease and cognitive decline. Revealing that AD is not one condition, as it is currently treated, but three, The End of Alzheimer's outlines 36 metabolic factors (micronutrients, hormone levels, sleep) that can trigger downsizing in the brain. The protocol shows us how to rebalance these factors using lifestyle modifications like taking B12, eliminating gluten, or improving oral hygiene. The End of Alzheimer's brings new hope to a broad audience of patients, caregivers, physicians, and treatment centers with a fascinating look inside the science and a complete step-by-step plan that fundamentally changes how we treat and even think about AD.

Growing Marijuana: The Marijuana Masterclass, a Guide Written by Experts

Growing marijuana is one thing but growing high quality marijuana is quite another. There is a step-by-step process to cultivating the biggest, densest buds and developing the highest THC percentage possible, and that's where the ground-breaking book Growing Marijuana: The Marijuana Masterclass, a Guide Written by Experts comes in. Compiled from decades of real life experience and advice for seasoned professionals, Growing Marijuana: The Marijuana Masterclass, a Guide Written by Experts is the must-have guide to cannabis cultivation.

Simple CISSP Exam Questions

The CISSP certification is the gold standard for security professionals. This test question resource is the companion guide to Simple CISSP Exam Guide. In this book you will find over 2,400 unique questions, with most presented in two formats: - given a term, provide the definition - given a definition, provide the term. That means there are over 4,400 total questions!

Emotional Recovery from Workplace Mobbing: A Guide for Targets and Their Supports

Richard shares how to manage the out of control emotions, anxiety, loss, and trauma of a mobbing experience. He offers advice about rebuilding relationships with family and loved ones. In addition, he examines the pitfalls of seeking help for this misunderstood phenomenon. This is a must listen for someone recovering from the nightmare that is workplace mobbing and for anyone watching a loved one struggle.

You might wonder why you need to know how to identify narcissists, psychopaths, Machiavellians, and sadists. The Dark Triad is a theory of evolution that indicates that traits of psychopathy, narcissism, and manipulativeness are becoming more and more prevalent in our society. These cut-throat personalities are designed by evolution to be physically and emotionally strong, to survive at all costs, and to get ahead financially.

Google Classroom: Easiest Teacher's Guide to Master Google Classroom

Are you a teacher that wants to make your class more organized and effective? That is what Google Classroom is going to do! Classrooms are going to make it to where you are no longer have to give out papers to your class and you are going to be able to monitor the progress of your students as they fulfill the requirements for that class.

What do you know about hacking a computer system? If you are like most of us, you can't even get into your own computer if you've forgotten the password. The good news is that hacking is actually a lot easier than you think, and anyone can learn how to do it. As long as you are willing to do the work and to work through the steps patiently, you will also be able to hack the systems that you want to.

Beyond Freud: From Individual to Social Psychoanalysis

Throughout his scientific work, Erich Fromm pursued the twin goal of uncovering the social unconscious of the individual as well as the unconscious of social entities. As Fromm wrote in 1936, "The problem within psychology and sociology is the dialectic intertwining of natural and historical factors. Freud has wrongly based psychology totally on natural factors."

JavaScript: Beginner JavaScript Coding from the Ground Up (DIY JavaScript, Book 1)

Are you clueless about coding? Are you lost understanding computer languages? Are you intimidated by the learning curve? Don't be! JavaScript is one of the most common and powerful computer languages around. It is easy to use, easy to understand, and is the driving force behind some of the most popular websites around. Facebook uses it. Google uses it. Netflix uses it, and yes - even Amazon uses it. Would you like to learn how to use it? Take the first step to becoming code savvy with one of the most popular, useful computer languages on the market.

Stop Gambling: A License to Lose

Gambling is a dangerous, addictive, and expensive hobby, in fact it's the fastest growing addiction on the planet. Smart phone technology has sparked a global gambling epidemic, the temptation to gamble is now literally in the palm of our hands. Mind blowing, record breaking profits are being recorded by online casinos and sports betting companies. As a result, hard-working everyday people are gambling money they simply cannot afford to lose. I was one of the many who suffered extreme gambling addiction.

Through the Shadowlands: A Science Writer's Odyssey into an Illness Science Doesn't Understand

Julie fully expected to be breathing at the end of the trip - but driving into Death Valley felt like giving up, surrendering. She'd spent years battling a mysterious illness so extreme that she often couldn't turn over in her bed. The top specialists in the world were powerless to help, and research on her disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, was at a near standstill. Having exhausted the plausible ideas, Julie turned to an implausible one. Going against both her instincts and her training, she followed the advice of strangers she'd met on the Internet.

The Cannabis Pharmacy: Grow Cannabis, Make Hemp Oil, and Know the Difference between THC, CBD and the Medical Benefits of Cannabinoids

Cannabis and the hemp family of plants are often known as recreational drugs but did you know many of the same parts that cause the "high" also deliver strong, medicinal effects? Its active component, known as CBD, has the power to heal, improve, and aid various health problems people suffer with. In this book, you'll learn more about this active component as well as the various effects of THC (the stimulant chemical in the plant). You'll learn common applications for CBD products, personal recipes, and even applications for various ailments and problems.

Science News, September 23, 2017

Turn to Science News for the latest coverage of biology, astronomy, the physical sciences, behavioral sciences, math and computers, chemistry, and earth science. This 75-year-old publication is known for its sharp writing and up-to-date coverage of the latest scientific research. Since its debut in 1922, Science News has been committed to providing reports on scientific and technical developments that the layman would find interesting and easy to digest.

Emotional Intelligence: The Top Secret to Using Emotional Intelligence to Get the Most out of Your Life

Are you good at reading the intentions of others? Do you know how to manage your knee jerk reactions when someone insults you? Do you wish you could empathize more with the way others feel? You may know your IQ, and if it is a very high number then you should be very proud of your intellectual ability, but what about your EQ? That's right, do you know your Emotional Intelligence?

Secrets of the Human Body

Two hundred and six bones. One heart. Two eyes. Ten fingers. You may think we know what makes up a human. But it turns out our bodies are full of surprises. What makes tears of joy different from tears of sadness? Why is a gut feeling so much smarter than you think? And why is 90 percent of you not even human? You may think you know the human body - heart, lungs, brain and bones - but it's time to think again. Your body is full of extraordinary mysteries that science is only just beginning to understand.

Empath: How to Protect Yourself from Negativity and Thrive as an Empath

When you're an empath, regardless of how much you may try to change your own mood, sometimes you just can't. Even when you've done all the right things to move beyond something, you may still feel stuck. This isn't because you're only thinking about or merely empathizing with others, but literally taking on their energy. This is why training yourself to handle your abilities is so important. It is tailored to your situation and goes above and beyond basic psychological tips for coping. This book will help you find these tools.

Netting the Sun: A Personal Geography of the Oregon Desert (Northwest Voices Essays)

Netting the Sun offers a carefully crafted diversity of natural and human stories from a landscape seemingly empty and forlorn to passing casual travelers. This surprising interpretation of south central Oregon's botany, geology, wildlife, ethnography, and history reveals what a truly special place the high desert is.

This book includes three manuscripts: Bitcoin: What You Need to Know About the Cryptocurrency (Amazon best seller); Ethereum: What You Need to Know About the Blockchain-Based Platform; and Blockchain: How Technologies Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money and Business. Regardless of how much you know about the cryptocurrency phenomenon or whether you are a total newbie, this book will explain the concepts assuming no prior knowledge and will give you everything you need to know.

Immune

The human body is like an exceedingly well-fortified castle, defended by billions of soldiers - some live for less than a day, others remember battles for decades, but all are essential in protecting us from disease. This hidden army is our immune system, and without it we could not survive the eternal war between us and our microscopic enemies. Immune explores the incredible arsenal that lives within us - how it knows what to attack and what to defend and how it kills everything from the common cold to the plague bacterium.

Cybersecurity for Beginners

Companies that can use technology wisely and well are booming, companies that make bad or no technology choices collapse and disappear. The cloud, smart devices and the ability to connect almost any object to the internet are an essential landscape to use but are also fraught with new risks and dangers of a magnitude never seen before. Also featuring an alphabetical section at the back of the book to help you translate many of the main cybersecurity technical terms into plain, non-technical English.

How to Be Human: Consciousness, Language and 48 More Things That Make You You

What is it that makes us human? Is it language, imagination, morality, or is it that we cook and wear shoes? Or perhaps we are less human than we think - Neanderthal and Denisovan genes can be found within all of us! Once again, New Scientist have all of the unexpected answers, and - just as they did for the universe in The Origin of (Almost) Everything - they take us on a tour around the human body and brain, taking in everything from evolution to email, from the Stone Age to Spotify.

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands to rethink their beliefs about life.

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ

Our gut is almost as important to us as our brain, yet we know very little about how it works. Gut: The Inside Story is an entertaining, informative tour of the digestive system from the moment we raise a tasty morsel to our lips until the moment our body surrenders the remnants to the toilet bowl. No topic is too lowly for the author's wonder and admiration, from the careful choreography of breaking wind to the precise internal communication required for a cleansing vomit.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: and Other Clinical Tales

Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.

Welcome to the Universe is a personal guided tour of the cosmos by three of today's leading astrophysicists. Inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton, this book covers it all - from planets, stars, and galaxies to black holes, wormholes, and time travel.

Since Darwin's day, we've been told that sexual monogamy comes naturally to our species. Mainstream science - as well as religious and cultural institutions - has maintained that men and women evolved in families in which a man's possessions and protection were exchanged for a woman's fertility and fidelity. But this narrative is collapsing....

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control.

The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology

Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics - as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies.

A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution

Not since the atomic bomb has a technology so alarmed its inventors that they warned the world about its use. Not, that is, until the spring of 2015, when biologist Jennifer Doudna called for a worldwide moratorium on the use of the new gene-editing tool CRISPR - a revolutionary new technology that she helped create - to make heritable changes in human embryos.

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

Lawyers. Accountants. Software Engineers. That what Mom and Dad encouraged us to become. They were wrong. Gone is the age of "left-brain" dominance. The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers - creative and emphatic "right-brain" thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn't.

The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

The Antidote is a series of journeys among people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. What they have in common is a hunch about human psychology: that it’s our constant effort to eliminate the negative that causes us to feel so anxious, insecure, and unhappy. And that there is an alternative "negative path" to happiness and success that involves embracing the things we spend our lives trying to avoid.

Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking

From elicitation, pretexting, influence and manipulation all aspects of social engineering are picked apart, discussed and explained by using real world examples, personal experience and the Science & Technology behind them to unraveled the mystery in social engineering. Kevin Mitnick - one of the most famous social engineers in the world - popularized the term social engineering. He explained that it is much easier to trick someone into revealing a password than to exert the effort of hacking.

Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight

Batman is one of the most compelling and enduring characters to come from the Golden Age of Comics, and interest in his story has only increased through countless incarnations since his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us? Batman and Psychology explores these and other intriguing questions about the masked vigilante, including: Does Batman have PTSD? Why does he fight crime? Why as a vigilante? Why the mask, the bat, and the underage partner?

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

Everyone would benefit from seeing further into the future, whether buying stocks, crafting policy, launching a new product, or simply planning the week's meals. Unfortunately, people tend to be terrible forecasters. As Wharton professor Philip Tetlock showed in a landmark 2005 study, even experts' predictions are only slightly better than chance. However, an important and underreported conclusion of that study was that some experts do have real foresight.

The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security

The world's most infamous hacker offers an insider's view of the low-tech threats to high-tech security. Kevin Mitnick's exploits as a cyber-desperado and fugitive form one of the most exhaustive FBI manhunts in history and have spawned dozens of articles, books, films, and documentaries. Since his release from federal prison, in 1998, Mitnick has turned his life around and established himself as one of the most sought-after computer security experts worldwide.

Consciousness Explained

The national bestseller chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 1991 is now available as an audiobook. The author of Brainstorms, Daniel C. Dennett replaces our traditional vision of consciousness with a new model based on a wealth of fact and theory from the latest scientific research.

Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction

Challenging both the idea of the addict's "broken brain" and the notion of a simple "addictive personality", Unbroken Brain offers a radical and groundbreaking new perspective, arguing that addiction is a learning disorder, and shows how seeing the condition this way can untangle our current debates over treatment, prevention, and policy.

The Confidence Gap: A Guide to Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt

Russ Harris offers a surprising solution to low self-confidence, shyness, and insecurity: Rather than trying to "get over" our fears, he says, the secret is to form a new and wiser relationship with them. Paradoxically, it's only when we stop struggling against our fearfulness that we begin to find lasting freedom from it.

The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self

We're used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain - an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is "a virtual self in a virtual reality." But if the self is not "real," why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it?

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits, denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were - and still are. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is that kind of book.